SIU Forever Campaign Reaches Goal

Officials at SIU-Carbondale were all smiles Thursday as interim Chancellor John Dunn announced the university reached a fundraising goal.

"The Forever SIU Campaign has met its $75 million goal seven months ahead of schedule."

The 75.3 million dollars raised so far includes 33 million for academic programs. Dunn says SIU-C is not stopping now that it has met its goal.

"We will continue to welcome support to help attract and retain students at SIU and to ensure that our academic programs remain strong."

Credit Brad Palmer, WSIU Radio

Nearly 40 million dollars supports student scholarships. Senior Communications Studies major Danielle Lorentz is a previous scholarship recipient. She says they give you an opportunity you wouldn't have otherwise.

"That's what scholarship did for me and my academic career. I feel like they helped me find my strengths and the things that I wanted to do moving forward. I'm really thankful for that. I don't really know where I'd be if I hadn't had those opportunities."

Dunn says giving appears to be up with the excitement surrounding the university's 150th anniversary celebration. He says this proves the school needs to reach out to more people.

"I mean we have more and more friends than sometimes we have any idea how many we have. People who have gone on from this university that have done great things and in many instances have achieved a high level of wealth."

40 percent of the money raised so far is in the form of endowments, which are given out over time and are everlasting.

The campaign started in 2017 and has received over 60-thousand individual gifts, including $250,000 from the recent agreement with Banterra Bank for naming rights at the SIU Arena.